*Eleditor’s note: We welcome all points of view, as long as helpful and respectful and fact-based. Contribute your thoughts, if so inspired, here—our mission is to bring all together in mindful discussion, so that we may learn, share and listen.*

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Mindful bonus from Waylon & elephant community, today:

This may be the moment when we are ripped from the womb and stomped out gasping, the moment Jesus is beaten and spat upon as he is led to the cross, the moment a once stable country gazes in the looking glass and sees its future ruination.

Countless nations have been here before—the crucial vote that spelled war, the assassination that brought on a genocide, the invasion of some utterly ruthless power—and it all reminds me of the build-up to both World Wars. But never before has the world’s greatest superpower fallen apart in a thoroughly interconnected world.

The most powerful man in the world is now a likely sociopath. The person who is now most capable of destroying the biosphere does not even know why it matters. The most ignorant and incapable, vainglorious and morally stunted of Americans is now in charge. And it is now quite possible that the world order so many of us took for granted—the order of developed democracies that spoke of human rights and the need to stop climate change, with all of its corrupt trade deals and inaction—will fall back into the annals of history as a dream denied.

We have simply never been here before, because while America has elected Republicans, we have never elected a fascist head-of-state.

Through my articles I have tried to convey the extent of these dangers, but it has been impossible, because doing so would require explaining the very foundations of social order itself. Conservative commentators like Charles Krauthammer, George Will and David Brooks have tried to explain how Trump would undermine that order, but few listened. A society whose politics opinions were being formed in the shooting gallery of social media was not concerned with social order. And it is precisely the foundations of social order that Trump will undermine.

Donald Trump has all of the characteristics of a tyrant, and the following he has built is possessed of all the racism and xenophobia typical of fascist movements. These will be the people running what was formerly the most powerful country in the world. These will be the people who control the fate of billions.

And most of them simply will not care.

They simply will not care, because they have not thought much about the rest of the world and do not care much about their fellow citizens.

Please do not try to console yourself that it will not be so bad. All of the smartest and best-informed people know it is probably infinitely worse than we can imagine. It is time we accept the consequences of our failure to stop America’s Hitler and begin to look at preserving the most vital institutions we can. Republicans will now control all three branches of government under what is likely a sociopathic tyrant. If we overreact, then even the most decent Republicans will line up behind him; if we lie down and try to wish it away, even the most decent Republicans will line up behind him. Almost every move we make now will be checked.

Now is the time to bring all of our senses, our most subtle and heartfelt cares, our deepest intelligence, and our greatest capacities to the task of joining together in a vast global movement to stop Trump. If you are not American, you will need to press your government to undermine his presidency; you will need to compromise across parties; you will need to be willing to let causes you once deemed vital fall away in order to live to fight another day.

The greatest hope may lie in a global boycott of the Trump Presidency, effecting already shaky markets at the margin, bringing on one vast global recession. It would be a disaster for billions, but probably better than a successful Trump Presidency. It can happen through investors pulling out of America, through citizens of all nations ceasing to buy American-made goods. Leaders can snub President Trump, and their peoples can protest him.

It may be the only way to stop him.

And if you think this is hyperbole, it is either because you are new to politics, you have deluded yourself through cynicism, or you are still in denial. We may be experiencing the most historic moment of our lives—and the nightmare is only just beginning.

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If you liked this article, please check out my book, Convergence: The Globalization of Mind, and friend me to join the dialogue on Facebook.

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Author: Theo Horesh

Image: Twitter

Editor: Toby Israel

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